Real Estate Startup Opendoor raises $325 Million

Opendoor— a company that wants to bring the complex operation of buying or selling a home have raised $325 million in Series E.

The latest round was co-led by General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures, and South Florida-based builder Lennar Corporation. It brings Opendoor’s total funding to $645 million in equity and $1.5 billion in debt. Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, 10100 Fund, and Invitation Homes also participated in the most recent round.

“We’ve seen incredible growth in our markets as homeowners embrace the simplicity and certainty of buying and selling through Opendoor,” said CEO Eric Wu in a statement. Prior to the Series E, Opendoor’s most recent round was $210 million in November 2016. Lennar committed $100 million in debt financing in late 2017.

“What I realized was that one there’s a lot of tailwinds with people wanting to transact with their mobile device,” CEO Eric Wu said. “We see this with Uber and Lyft and Amazon. I think the future of real estate will be on demand, that’s the centerpiece of Opendoor’s thesis. How do we make the transaction real-time and instant. I realized there were going to be tailwinds, and that real estate was in dire need of being able to be transformed.”

Founded in 2014, San Francisco-based Opendoor claims to purchase $2.5 billion in homes each year. It currently operates in 10 markets, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Orlando, Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, San Antonio and Tampa.

Opendoor says it hopes to expand to 50 markets by the end of 2020 with this additional financing. It is in ten markets right now, and also says it now purchases more than $2.5 billion in homes on an annual run rate.

Nationwide, Opendoor is facing competition from new “iBuyers,” or companies that let investors buy and sell homes online. In April, Zillow said it would start buying and selling homes.